The Doctor certainly didn't mind that Jamie wanted to go around and ask about what was happening with UNIT.
"Oh, not at all, Jamie," the Doctor said, as he nibbled on the rations as he worked. "I will admit that you are sort of like a muse to me, but if you think you would rather lend your services to aid in whatever situation is going on with UNIT, go right ahead."
"I hope I can be of some help to them; the Brigadier seemed to think I could be," Jamie said, finishing his own breakfast.
"I could have told you that, as well," the Doctor said.
"Doctor, we have better things to do than stoke the ego of an ape," the Master reminded him, coldly.
Jamie quietly hurled another oath at the Master before turning back to the Doctor.
"Ye look after yerself while I'm oot, aye?" Jamie asked. He then spoke loudly to ensure that the Master and Salamander would hear him. "I'll keep coming back to check up on ye. Frequently."
"You do that, Jamie," the Doctor said, giving him a fond smile before sobering slightly. "I am sorry about all of this, you know…"
"Aye, I know," Jamie said. "But I know better than t' listen to some crocodile who betrays his own kind."
"I certainly am glad of that," the Doctor said. "Mind that you don't stay too long in that downpour without some proper coverage. Be sure to keep as warm and as dry as you can…."
The Doctor would have fretted a bit more over Jamie had the Master not uttered something in Gallifreyan—in an exasperated tone. The piper glared at the Master one more time before heading back to Yates and Benton, who were also just finishing their meal.
Soon, two other UNIT soldiers arrived, and Jamie left the Master's TARDIS with the captain and the sergeant.
By this point in time, some more UNIT vehicles—five in total—had arrived, along with more reinforcements and provisions. Benton went to get things organized as Jamie and Yates began to question the soldiers who had been there since the previous night.
"You are absolutely certain it was my voice?" the captain was asking.
"We never heard the communications, Sir," the corporal from earlier had said. "But I would think that they would know your voice."
"Unless they were fleeing," Jamie said. "I mentioned that t' the Brigadier, but he di'n want t' think that."
"And I don't want to think of it, either," Yates admitted. "Let's focus on this now. I've got a few more questions to ask here, but you said that the Brigadier gave you a pass; can you inspect the communications of this particular vehicle?"
"Aye, but I'm nae sure what I'll be looking at," Jamie admitted.
"I can help you," the corporal offered, having seen the Brigadier give Jamie the pass. "I'm the one who drove this up here."
Jamie nodded, following the corporal to the front of the vehicle.
"The communications of all of our vehicles are identical," the corporal explained. "We use the same, secure wavelength for our communications."
"How secure is it?" Jamie inquired.
"Well… We'd like to think it's as secure as we can get it. Do you think it may have been breached?"
"I don' know," Jamie admitted. "Och, I'm nae the one t' ask aboot these things."
"The Brigadier wouldn't have given you access to them without reason," the corporal said.
"I know, I know…" Jamie said. He paused, thinking for a moment. "Are the transmissions recorded?"
"All communications we receive at UNIT Headquarters are recorded," the corporal said. "We don't record vehicle-to-vehicle transmissions, however. I think, after this, we should start doing so."
"Aye," Jamie agreed. "If we'd had a sample of the recordings, we could have compared them to the captain's voice. E'n withoot trying t' compare them, I wish there was some way we could find out what orders were given last night."
"There is a way," the corporal realized. "We can try getting in touch with the three vehicles. Assuming they haven't met with foul play on account of a trap, we can attempt to figure out what has happened."
"Aye, that sounds like a great idea," Jamie said. "Can ye help me work this?"
"Oh, yes; hold on…" The corporal took a moment to set up the communicator. After a moment, he nodded. "Since it's the same wavelength, all three vehicles can hear you, assuming things are alright. This is vehicle 59; the ones who left were 56 through 58."
Jamie nodded and picked up the transmitted.
"Ah, hello? This is UNIT vehicle 59, calling vehicles 56, 57, and 58," the piper said, slightly nervous. "This is James Robert McCrimmon, civilian, acting with authority granted by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Can ye hear me?"
Only the crackle of static answered the piper.
"No answer…" he said, his face falling.
"It could be because of the weather," the corporal said, also disappointed. "Don't assume the worst just yet."
"I hope that's all it is, and nae some trick by the Master and Salamander," Jamie fretted. "They might have tried to draw the reinforcements away for some reason—maybe t' attack us in case things do work oot…" He trailed off as a garbled response came from the receiver. "Hello? Hello!? Och, I cannae hear ye!"
A broken transmission issued from the receiver.
"…Vehicle… 57… Read you…"
"It's 57!" Jamie exclaimed. "It's 57! They're alright! Ah, hello, 57? Ye're all broken up; can ye speak a wee bit more clearly?"
"I think this is as good as you're going to get it," the corporal sighed, looking up at the storm.
"Aye, probably. Hello, 57? I need t' know what were the orders that Captain Yates gave ye last night!" There was no response, prompting Jamie to repeat the question until another garbled transmission was received—
"Captain… in trouble… emergency… asked backup… A9 Road. Still… on our way. Weather impeding progress. "
"What's the A9 Road?" Jamie asked, baffled.
"You ought to know—you're Scottish," the corporal said. He paused as Jamie gave him a blank look. "You know—the great, big road that runs all the way northward to the Highlands? Vehicles travel through it like lifeblood."
"…I havenae been home in a long, long time," Jamie said, dreading the thought of some modern road running smack through his homeland.
"Oh," the corporal said. "Well, anyway, at least we know that vehicle 57 is alright. They'd have said if anything had happened to 56 and 58; they should be alright, too. The question is what do we do now?"
"What do ye mean?"
"Well, I can't tell them to turn around and come back; I don't have that authority," the corporal said. "But you do. You have to decide whether or not to tell them to disobey the orders that they think Captain Yates gave them."
Jamie blinked in surprise.
"I have t' decide that? Shouldnae Captain Yates be the one to decide?"
"He can, of course," the corporal said. "But he seems to be preoccupied right now with the questioning. You'll have to think quickly; the way this storm is getting, you may have trouble trying to reach vehicle 57 the further north they go."
Jamie thought for a moment.
"I need another opinion," he decided. "I'll be right back."
He hopped out of vehicle 59 and dashed past a puzzled Captain Yates, relaying to him, as well, that he would return quickly.
He clambered up the tree and reentered the Master's TARDIS.
"Doctor!" he exclaimed. "Doctor, I need to ask ye something!"
"Yes, Jamie?" the Doctor said, looking up from his calculations.
"Make it quick," the Master ordered. "We were about to try out a new coding sequence."
"I have a question aboot the way time and space work in situations like this," Jamie said, ignoring the Master. "Would ye say that since space and time are already going bad, they would begin to show effects of that?"
"I suppose so," the Doctor said. "After all, you had visions of the future on Neo Serenity as a result of taking in some of the time vortex's energy. A lot of strange things could be happening."
"Such as people being in two places at the same time?"
The Doctor blinked.
"What exactly is going on?"
"Captain Yates was here in this TARDIS all night, but somehow, he was in Scotland last night at the same time and was calling the vehicles here for backup," Jamie explained. "I wanted to know if that was possible, or if it's a trick by… someone." He cast a suspicious glance at the Master, who ignored him.
"I see…" the Doctor said. "Well, time is relative, you know. It could be that, in his future, the captain is in Scotland, remembered the vehicles here, and, desperate, called to them for help."
"Aye, I suppose," Jamie said. "So it is possible, then. Now we have t' decide what t' do aboot those vehicles on their way to Scotland."
"Is everything alright?" Victoria asked.
"I hope so," the piper responded. He turned back to the Doctor. "Thanks, Doctor. I'm sorry t' keep ye from yer important work."
"Oh, Jamie, don't bother about that—"
"Yes, he must bother; he is consistently underfoot," the Master hissed. "How you can stand him, I don't know. You would both do well to remember that we are on borrowed time!"
The Doctor gave Jamie an apologetic glance before going back to work. Jamie watched them for a moment before heading back outside to vehicle 59.
"The corporal has just been telling me what happened," Yates said. "We need to call those vehicles back at once."
"Ye may nae want t' do that," Jamie warned. "That's what I went back for—to ask the Doctor if it's possible for a person t' be in two places at once. He said it can happen due to time travel."
"…Except that I'm not the one traveling through time," Yates pointed out. "It's Miss Grant who does all the traveling with the Doctor now. Mind you, I wouldn't say no to a chance at it; Miss Grant is always telling these tales of the places she's been and the people she's met in those places."
"There's a chance ye may in the future," Jamie pointed out.
"What future? At the rate things are going, we might not have a future," Yates sighed. He picked up the transmitter and attempted to contact vehicle 57, but he heard nothing but static.
"Why don' we ask the Brigadier what to do?" Jamie suggested.
"He's got his hands full trying to figure out what to do at H.Q.; I wouldn't make things even more difficult for him," Yates replied. "I daresay we can handle this on our own. All I know is that I never gave any order for those three vehicles to go to Scotland; based on that alone, I think we ought to call them back. But we can't seem to get in touch with them at all, anyway, and I can't stand around here all day until we do."
"I can," Jamie said. He sighed as he remembered how the Master had chided him moments ago; though the Doctor certainly didn't agree with the Master, Jamie had to admit that the Doctor would probably be able to work better if Jamie wasn't there to distract him. "I've got nothing better t' do; I can sit here and keep trying t' get back in touch with the other vehicles. Do ye want me t' tell them t' turn around and come back?"
"Yes, do that, would you?" Yates said. "I appreciate this, McCrimmon." He turned to the corporal. "You can leave McCrimmon here and go back to your post; you'll be next on the rotation to stand guard in the tree—er, the Master's TARDIS, I mean."
The corporal saluted him and went back, and Yates soon left, too.
Jamie dutifully attempted to call the three vehicles every fifteen minutes. And as time ticked on, he still received no reply, beginning to think that the storm. Still, he stayed at the wheel of vehicle 59 for most of the day, taking a break only to deliver lunch and dinner to the others on board the Master's TARDIS, and making sure someone covered him while he was gone. Both times, the Doctor did stop to thank him, but nothing more, as the Master would soon pull him back into conversation to prevent Jamie from distracting him—and Jamie couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment each time. He still couldn't blame the Doctor, who was looking very guilty at not being able to talk more, as well as looking upset that the coding sequence from the morning seemed to have failed.
As the night drew on, Jamie soon found himself requiring coffee as he continued to attempt to contact the vehicles, with no success. The piper let out a quiet moan of defeat when morning broke; no word from anyone in the TARDIS meant that another night had gone by with no results, and only 24 hours remained.
Even if the Master was determined to keep the Doctor from speaking to him, Jamie decided that if he really did only have one day left to live, he wanted to spend it by the Doctor's side. His mind made up, Jamie was just about to exit the vehicle and get someone else to take his place when the communications line suddenly crackled to life.
"Hello…? McCrimmon!?" a voice asked through the static.
"Aye, this is Jamie McCrimmon!" the piper exclaimed. "Who is this!?"
There was a long pause before the voice spoke again.
"I know… hard to believe… this is… Captain Yates!"